Pulsars and gravity waves

TL;DRAbstract

It’s the start of the morning shift at Parkes telescope. We follow Dr Stephen Ord who takes control of the world famous ‘Dish’ in an around the clock watch for an event that’s been predicted but never observed - gravity waves. Around the world teams of scientists are searching for these ripples in gravity. The problem the Parkes team face is that gravity waves can’t be seen and they don’t emit radio signals. So the team have developed a method to look for the effect of gravity waves on other objects in the universe. When a gravity wave passes, everything, including time, gets distorted. So the team have devised a method of finding shifts in time by observing stars called Pulsars. The Parkes telescope has the most sensitive pulsar detection system in the world. We follow the action as they move the telescope to line up with a pulsar and receive the signal. Pulsars are the fastest spinning stars in the universe, they also spin very regularly, with more precision than an atomic clock. The

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